Germany: Federal Government decides to work on the introduction of minimum wage in call centers

Gross hourly pay between €5.77 and €6.50, tough rhythms, overtime not counted, less than 20 days off a year, permanent shifting between the company’s different services or absence of training….  According to the dbb tarifunion, a group of sectoral unions gathered around the union of German civil servants (which also represents many employees who are not working for the State), working conditions in external call centers are absolutely appalling and do not respect human rights or dignity.  “This is intolerable.  We want minimum wage amounting to €9.50 gross for the 92,000 employees working in call centers” declared Frank Stöhr, leader of the dbb tarifunion, before the meeting of the Central Committee started.  This organization gathers representatives from the Ministry, trade unions and employers.  “There are about 6,700 call centers employing 500,000 people in Germany.  Thankfully, most of them work for “integrated” call centers belonging to big firms such as Deutsche Telekom or Deutsche Post.  Therefore, they are covered by the collective agreements of the parent company and working conditions are decent.  However, 20% work in “external” call centers with hardly bearable conditions.  7% have to request additional welfare in addition to their salary to survive” Cornelia Krüger, dbb tarifunion spokesperson, told Planet Labor.  Stöhr said it was high time we “worked on stabilizing working conditions in call centers.”  For the dbb tarifunion, the opening of this procedure is a hard-earned victory in an obviously resistant context.  Indeed, the request was sent to the Central Committee (created in September 2009) in November 2009. Yet, since it was created, this Committee, which determines where to take action alone, has never held a meeting or uttered a decision.